Clan x86

General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: Joe on October 18, 2006, 10:38:03 PM

Title: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Joe on October 18, 2006, 10:38:03 PM
Over Christmas vacation both Tessa and Travis (those names don't need to be remembered, of course) will be returning from college and the USCGA, so the entire TRANSPARENCY worship band of the 05-06 school year will be returning, and they're an awesome band. I've worked it out with pastor and Marianne that we will be holding a big long concert over break, and I'd like to make a CD of their music and sell it (of course, cheaply, and 100% donated to the work of God, yadayada).

Backstory and useless details over, I need to know how to go about doing this. I'm of course doing this with permission, and am a "certified tech dude" at my church in good standing with the youth group, etc, so I'll have full access to messing up (er.. using) the sound board, etc. I was planning to split the cable from the sound board to the speakers and then converting that to a standard headphone plug, and then using male-male speaker cables to run that back into my faithful friend Aria (a laptop), while she runs Replay Music, making MP3's, and then of course burning them from there. Does anyone notice any obvious flaws in this plan? Any better ways to do it?
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Newby on October 18, 2006, 10:45:29 PM
Replay Music? That's pretty shitty. You're gonna get crap ass quality.

If someone buys a CD, don't give them shit quality for songs.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: d&q on October 18, 2006, 10:56:17 PM
Quote from: Newby on October 18, 2006, 10:45:29 PM
If someone buys a CD, don't give them shit quality for songs.

I think that's precisely why he's asking for advice.  :P
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Newby on October 18, 2006, 11:00:50 PM
Quote from: Deuce on October 18, 2006, 10:56:17 PM
Quote from: Newby on October 18, 2006, 10:45:29 PM
If someone buys a CD, don't give them shit quality for songs.

I think that's precisely why he's asking for advice.  :P

I thought he was asking for help with hardware setup...
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: d&q on October 18, 2006, 11:11:00 PM
Doesn't the setup of the hardware make a different in sound quality? (I wouldn't know, but it seems sensible to me.  :-\). I've never used Replay Music either.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Newby on October 18, 2006, 11:15:02 PM
Quote from: Deuce on October 18, 2006, 11:11:00 PM
Doesn't the setup of the hardware make a different in sound quality? (I wouldn't know, but it seems sensible to me.  :-\). I've never used Replay Music either.

The hardware setup will make a difference in the audible quality. I'm talking audio stream quality. MP3s aren't anywhere near as good as raw wave files, and if you're capturing and encoding directly to an MP3, odds are that's what you'll burn to a CD. And that just isn't cool.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Joe on October 18, 2006, 11:19:50 PM
Can replay music capture to a WAV? Or would burning a 320kbps MP3 to a CD have bad quality? Honestly, I personally don't notice bad quality until 64kbps or lower, and I have a hightened sense of hearing due to lack of smell and poor vision. But, sure, what's a good piece of software to capture a mega-long WAV file, and how long would.. say.. two hours of concert end up being disk-space wise. I don't think it'd hit 6gb, but if it does we'll have a problem (poor Aria is tiny..). Of course, I may have a better laptop by then due to my job, or just use my moms (60gb ftw.. I doubt it'll fill that!).

So yeah, shoot some software ideas too.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Towelie on October 19, 2006, 12:43:13 AM
Quote from: Joex86] link=topic=7640.msg95281#msg95281 date=1161227990]
Can replay music capture to a WAV? Or would burning a 320kbps MP3 to a CD have bad quality? Honestly, I personally don't notice bad quality until 64kbps or lower, and I have a hightened sense of hearing due to lack of smell and poor vision. But, sure, what's a good piece of software to capture a mega-long WAV file, and how long would.. say.. two hours of concert end up being disk-space wise. I don't think it'd hit 6gb, but if it does we'll have a problem (poor Aria is tiny..). Of course, I may have a better laptop by then due to my job, or just use my moms (60gb ftw.. I doubt it'll fill that!).

So yeah, shoot some software ideas too.
I sure as hell can notice a difference between .flac and 192kpbs. So... I advise .wav!
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: leet_muffin on October 19, 2006, 09:36:46 AM
Quote from: Joex86] link=topic=7640.msg95281#msg95281 date=1161227990]
Can replay music capture to a WAV? Or would burning a 320kbps MP3 to a CD have bad quality? Honestly, I personally don't notice bad quality until 64kbps or lower, and I have a hightened sense of hearing due to lack of smell and poor vision. But, sure, what's a good piece of software to capture a mega-long WAV file, and how long would.. say.. two hours of concert end up being disk-space wise. I don't think it'd hit 6gb, but if it does we'll have a problem (poor Aria is tiny..). Of course, I may have a better laptop by then due to my job, or just use my moms (60gb ftw.. I doubt it'll fill that!).

So yeah, shoot some software ideas too.

IIRC, Sony's Acid program can record to high quality .wav, check it out. And you're gonna' want to find a fully liscenced copy, too. Demo won't let you export files.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Hitmen on October 19, 2006, 12:28:09 PM
You're going to be recording it through the line in on a laptop... unless you have something other than on board sound it's going to sound like shit anyways. As far as software, if you have a decent sound card, go the shady route and download something like cubase. That way it won't sound crappy and you can touch up the sound a bit after. Since you're going to be selling the CDs for jesus, and you'll probably sell like 6, I doubt there would be much of a legal problem.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Newby on October 19, 2006, 06:44:51 PM
Quote from: Hitmen on October 19, 2006, 12:28:09 PM
Since you're going to be selling the CDs for jesus, and you'll probably sell like 6

I love you. Seriously.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: deadly7 on October 19, 2006, 07:06:27 PM
For anything decent, as far as a live album goes, you'd need good equipment aside from your sixty year old laptop.  And I doubt your church has that kind of money.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Joe on October 19, 2006, 10:10:50 PM
Quote from: deadly7 on October 19, 2006, 07:06:27 PM
For anything decent, as far as a live album goes, you'd need good equipment aside from your sixty year old laptop.  And I doubt your church has that kind of money.

I don't. I doubt they're going to spend it just because I recommended it, but they have talked to me (youth pastor, especially) asking about computer things.

Quote from: Hitmen on October 19, 2006, 12:28:09 PM
You're going to be recording it through the line in on a laptop... unless you have something other than on board sound it's going to sound like shit anyways. As far as software, if you have a decent sound card, go the shady route and download something like cubase. That way it won't sound crappy and you can touch up the sound a bit after. Since you're going to be selling the CDs for jesus, and you'll probably sell like 6, I doubt there would be much of a legal problem.

Yeah, I kinda forgot about how horrible onboard sound recording is. I'll have to give it a test sometime going out of a sterieo into the laptop. :-\.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: deadly7 on October 19, 2006, 11:08:16 PM
Quote from: Joex86] link=topic=7640.msg95409#msg95409 date=1161310250]
I don't. I doubt they're going to spend it just because I recommended it, but they have talked to me (youth pastor, especially) asking about computer things.
Oh really?  Your church just has a few thousand dollars laying around?  Damn.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: d&q on October 19, 2006, 11:11:29 PM
Some churches are surprisingly rich. My church just built a ~1.7 million addition to their property, and is going to build even more.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Joe on October 19, 2006, 11:24:12 PM
deadly has obviously never sat in pastor's office while he counted an offering. In an unamused tone, "four hundred.. four ten, four twenty, four fifty, four eighty, five hundred..".

EDIT -
Quick number crunching. In a congregation of two-hundred, a family of four (50 families), living off a suprisingly low $200/week would be tithing $20 per week, multiplied by the 50 families, adding up to $1000, before the additional offerings. Taking into account that person with a real carreer only makes $200 per week, and we have more than one carpenter, engineer, electritian, and doctor in our church, perhaps multiply the tithe by two and that's $2k per week. So yeah, our church does have a few thousand dollars laying around.
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: deadly7 on October 19, 2006, 11:35:57 PM
Quote from: Joex86] link=topic=7640.msg95423#msg95423 date=1161314652]
deadly has obviously never sat in pastor's office while he counted an offering. In an unamused tone, "four hundred.. four ten, four twenty, four fifty, four eighty, five hundred..".willingly gone into a church.
If you're going to be stupid about something, at least be factually stupid!
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: Super_X on October 20, 2006, 11:03:09 PM
Quote from: Joex86] link=topic=7640.msg95423#msg95423 date=1161314652]
deadly has obviously never sat in pastor's office while he counted an offering. In an unamused tone, "four hundred.. four ten, four twenty, four fifty, four eighty, five hundred..".

How does your pastor get thirty dollar bills?
Title: Re: Best way to record a live album? (Hardware setup)
Post by: deadly7 on October 20, 2006, 11:38:26 PM
Quote from: Super_X on October 20, 2006, 11:03:09 PM
How does your pastor get thirty dollar bills?
Jesus mails them down every week. Duh.